I have a clear memory, as if it were yesterday, of my first encounter with the community of the “Little Friars and Little Nuns of Jesus and Mary.” I would paraphrase a famous phrase “You never forget a first encounter.”
It was a beautiful Sunday, and in the late morning I went to the Cathedral of the city where I was born. I had it in mind to go to confession and then participate in the evening Mass. Looking at the front of the church, I noticed two young friars with light brown habits. One of them had a long habit, but the other had a knee-length habit, as he was doing his year of postulancy. Intrigued by them, I approached, we introduced ourselves, and we began a nice conversation. The friar with the long habit, instead of calling me by my legal name, with which I had introduced myself, began to call me Letizia. Although I had pointed out that that was not my name, he insisted on calling me that. After that, he apologized, saying that it was automatic for him to call me Letizia. In the end, I told him “This name really is beautiful, for its meaning.”
Later on, he explained that just before I had approached them that day, they had spoken with a married couple, and the wife’s name was Letizia. The husband had asked what phrase they should have written in a small chapel built in a garden where they had placed a statue of the Madonna. The friar replied that these phrases were most suitable, said by Mary in the Gospel: “Do what [Jesus] tells you” (John 2:5) – when Mary notices that there is no wine at the Wedding of Cana. The other was “Behold, I am the servant of the Lord” (Luke 1:38) – which Mary says in response to the angel in the Annunciation. Immediately, the man enthusiastically replied that the latter was the phrase they liked best. They then said goodbye and parted ways.
Later the friar, a spiritual man, asked himself what it could mean that he shared the phrase of Mary in response to the angel soon before he met me. Perhaps the Lord was telling him to pay attention (cf. Job 33:14) to this soul who is called and eager to say yes to God, following the example of Mary.
From that moment on, my name was Letizia, both for that friar and for the community. I clearly understood that this was the religious name the God had inspired and confirmed to e later with signs. In my heart, I longed to have a new name when I became a nun; keeping the name that my parents gave me did not appeal to me, even though I like the name itself. The Lord in his goodness had granted my desire – a desire that was not only human because, as someone pointed out to me, having a new name in consecrated life has a Biblical foundation in both the Old and New Testaments: “You shall be called by a new name, pronounced by the mouth of the Lord.” (Isaiah 62:2); “The names of the twelve apostles are these: first, Simon, called Peter…” (Matt 10:2); “Blessed are you Simon, Son of Jonah…And so I say to you, you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church…” (Matt 16:17-18).
Sr. LMV